ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a private-school vouchers bill Tuesday, culminating a fight Republicans have waged for years to give students in low-performing schools another option.
Senate Bill 233, which the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed last month largely along party lines, will offer vouchers worth up to $6,500 to parents of children enrolled in the bottom 25% of lowest-performing public schools who wish to send their kids to a private school.
“It’s not the government’s role to dictate to families the best choices for their child,” Kemp said during a bill signing ceremony across the street from the state Capitol. “This bill breaks down barriers and opens doors for all students to get the start they need.”
“We refuse to keep our kids trapped in failing schools any longer,” added Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.
While the bill originated in the state Senate, the House added a number of changes to the measure aimed at addressing concerns about its potential financial impact.
The legislation prohibits spending more than 1% of Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) fund on vouchers, a cap that is currently set at $140 million a year. It also limits the vouchers to students in families earning no more than 400% of the federal poverty limit – currently $120,000 a year for a family of four.
But opponents argued the bill will divert money from public schools while not truly serving the needs of students from low-income families.
“The amount of the voucher, $6,500, is not nearly enough to pay for most private schools, for which tuition may be as high as $50,000,” said Lisa Morgan, a kindergarten teacher and president of the Georgia Association of Educators. “Vouchers are not a lifeline for working families. They are a handout to upper class parents paid for by the working class.”
“Research shows that vouchers are used overwhelmingly by wealthier Georgia metro counties but not by rural areas – likely because, in many cases, private schooling options are unavailable,” added David Schaefer, vice president of research and policy for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based progressive think tank.
Kemp refuted arguments that vouchers will reduce funding for public schools by pointing to Georgia’s record spending on K-12 education this year. The governor’s budget also fully covers tuition for HOPE scholars and raises teacher pay, he said.
Kemp also signed a half dozen other education-related bills during Tuesday’s ceremony, including legislation aimed at protecting teenagers from cyberbullying and other negative effects of social media. The measure was a priority of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the state Senate.
Senate Bill 351 requires social media companies to take concrete steps to verify the age of their users. It also instructs the Georgia Department of Education to develop and periodically update programs to educate students to use social media safely.
Local school systems will have to adopt, implement, and enforce social media policies and submit them to the state Board of Education for review. Districts that fail to comply would be subject to losing state funds.
ATLANTA – Earth Day has brought an influx of federal dollars to boost the development of solar energy in Georgia.
The Biden administration awarded $156 million Monday to regional nonprofit Capital Good Fund to help residents of low-income communities in Atlanta, Decatur, and Savannah install solar panels on their rooftops.
The money is part of the Solar for All program, a $7 billion nationwide rooftop solar grant project.
“This funding will allow us and our partners to dramatically expand the impact of our existing Georgia BRIGHT program and bring the benefits of solar to approximately 20,000 households over five years while creating good-paying jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving local air quality,” said Andy Posner, Capital Good Fund’s founder and CEO.
Georgia BRIGHT offers residential and commercial rooftop solar, solar-plus-battery storage leases and power purchase agreements to homeowners and organizations. The Solar for All grant will significantly scale up the BRIGHT initiative while also broadening it to include workforce development and community solar projects, as well as enabling such repairs as roof replacements.
“Solar is the cheapest form of electricity – and one of the best ways to lower energy costs for American families,” said John Podesta, senior advisor to President Joe Biden for international climate policy. “[Monday’s] announcement … will mean that low-income communities, and not just well-off communities, will feel the cost-saving benefits of solar.”
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has signed controversial legislation prohibiting businesses seeking state economic development incentives from voluntarily recognizing unions if a secret-ballot election option is available.
Senate Bill 362, which cleared the General Assembly’s Republican majorities largely along party lines, was part of Kemp’s agenda for the 2024 legislative session and was backed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The governor signed the measure on Monday.
GOP lawmakers argued that secret-ballot elections protect workers’ right to privacy. Among its provisions, the bill forbids companies from disclosing their workers’ contact information to union organizers without written permission.
Democrats countered the measure is part of an effort by southern Republican governors to push back on union gains in the South, including last week’s vote by workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga to join the United Auto Workers.
“SB 362 is a direct attack on workers, businesses, and labor unions that will disqualify any business voluntarily recognizing a labor union in their workplace from receiving state economic incentives,” the Democratic Party of Georgia wrote in a statement. “[It’s] a violation of federal labor law that puts Georgia taxpayers on the hook to pay all the legal fees the state will spend defending their overreach in court.”
Also on Monday, Kemp signed the Safe at Home Act. House Bill 404 provides renters in Georgia new rights by requiring rental properties to be “fit for human habitation” upon signing a lease. Landlords also will be required to maintain their properties throughout the lease.
ATLANTA – The new congressional map the General Assembly drew during last fall’s special redistricting session is forcing Gov. Brian Kemp to shuffle several members of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to other seats.
Regent Tom Bradbury of Vinings is being shifted from representing Georgia’s 11th Congressional District to the 6th District, the governor’s office announced Friday. Kemp appointed David Dove of Cobb County, a former executive counsel to the governor, to the 11th District seat.
Regent Richard “Tim” Evans of Alpharetta, who has been representing the 6th Congressional District, will move over to the 7th District seat, succeeding Jose Perez of Peachtree Corners, who is rotating off the board.
Regent T. Dallas Smith of Atlanta was named to represent the 5th Congressional District, moving over from an at-large seat. Smith succeeds Sarah-Elizabeth Langford of Atlanta, whose term expired in January.
Besides Dove, Kemp appointed two other new members to the Board of Regents: Dan Murphy of Newton County and Dr. Deep J. Shah of Fulton County.
Murphy will represent Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, succeeding Ray Aldridge of Fulton County. Shah will serve as an at-large regent, succeeding Smith.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a package of health-care bills Friday, including the most significant reforms in decades to Georgia’s law governing hospital construction and new medical services.
Most of the measures include provisions aimed at increasing access to quality medical care in rural Georgia, an issue gaining urgency as economic developments efforts continue to pay off in job creation in rural communities.
“The need for health care is all parts of our state is only going to increase,” Kemp said during a bill signing ceremony on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens. “We’re creating problems because we’re growing so much.
Since the General Assembly enacted Georgia’s Certificate of Need (CON) law in 1979, applicants wishing to build a new health-care facility or provide a new medical service have been required to demonstrate the facility or service is needed in that community.
The law’s opponents have long argued the CON process is so time-consuming, cumbersome, and expensive that it delays and sometimes blocks efforts to bring more health-care services to rural counties where they have been in short supply.
“It was prohibiting small communities from improving access to health care,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has made CON reform a major priority.
House Bill 1339 exempts proposals to build hospitals in rural counties from having to obtain a CON if they plan to have a full-time emergency room, accept psychiatric and substance-abuse patients, participate in Medicaid, provide indigent care, and offer a training program.
“[It] … will streamline Certificate of Need processes for hospitals, especially in the areas of new equipment, infrastructure improvements, and behavioral health,” said Monty Veazey, president and CEO of the Tifton-based Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals.
“We hope this bill will be allowed to take effect for several years before being revisited, to see how it affects health care and patient outcomes.”
The legislation also will raise the annual cap on the state’s rural hospital tax credit from $75 million to $100 million and create a state commission to look for additional ways Georgia could improve health-care access.
Other bills in the health-care package Kemp signed Friday will:
create a new state income tax credit to physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants committed to practicing in rural communities.
expand Georgia’s service-cancelable loan program to include dental students committed to practicing in rural communities.
provide student-loan repayments to mental-health and substance-abuse professionals.
allow non-physicians to serve as heads of local public health boards.
expand the availability of residential mental-health treatment programs for children.
ATLANTA – U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 14th Congressional District doesn’t look to be competitive as she seeks reelection to a third term representing Northwest Georgia.
But the Rome Republican’s national profile is making her by far the most prolific fundraiser in this year’s Georgia congressional races.
The Greene campaign had raised nearly $5 million through the end of the first quarter, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission this week. Of that amount, about $4.8 million came from individual contributors, including $3.4 million in small-dollar donations of $200 or less.
The closest to Greene in fundraising among Georgia congressional candidates is Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, who had raised just more than $1.5 million through March 31.
Since winning election to Congress in 2020, Greene has built a reputation as an outspoken conservative not afraid to rock the boat in the House Republican Caucus. Currently, she is behind a motion to vacate the speakership of Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., over his support for additional U.S. aide to Ukraine.
“She’s become a national name, for better or worse,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. “That brings certain benefits, and that includes fundraising.”
While Green’s profile has drawn financial support from Republicans across the country, it also has attracted significant donations to Democrats willing to challenge her for the 14th District seat. In fact, Democrat Marcus Flowers outraised Greene during the 2022 campaign – $16.6 million to $12.5 million – according to the campaign finance website OpenSecrets.
However, Flowers only received 34.1% of the vote in losing to Greene two years ago. Now, he has moved over to challenge longtime Democratic Rep. David Scott of Atlanta in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District.
Flowers and a political action campaign linked to his campaign had raised more than $615,000 through the first quarter, compared to more than $865,000 raised by Scott.
This year, Democratic donors appeared to have settled on Afghanistan combat veteran Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general from Rockmart, among the four Democrats challenging Greene. Harris had raised $302,212 through January, February, and March, all but $5,000 from individual contributors.
Joseph Leigh of Rossville had raised only a little more than $17,000, including $7,000 in the form of a loan he made to his campaign. Clarence Blalock of Paulding County was next among the Democratic hopefuls with $11,378, followed by Deric Houston of Dallas with $5,810.
